Musical fairy tale a good fit for those new to opera

Do you enjoy the fairy tale Cinderella? Wait until you hear the operatic version.

On the heels of his masterpiece, The Barber of Seville, Gioacchino Rossini composed the popular Cinderella in 1817 .

Almost 200 years later, Opera Columbus will stage Cinderella (La Cenerentola in Italian) on Friday and Sunday in the Ohio Theatre, with Artistic Director William Boggs leading the Columbus Symphony. The opera will be sung in Italian, with English titles projected.

New York singer Jennifer Rivera is playing the title role for the fifth time -- after a stint in Bogota, Colombia.

"It's a wonderful opera musically," Rivera said last week from a central Ohio hotel.

"It's just a good part. Mezzo-sopranos don't always get to play the lead part, so, when we do, we like to do it."

The role is considered taxing.

"This particular style of opera is a good example of what I would say is some of the most athletic, physically demanding singing in opera music," said Kevin Lohr, director of productions and stage manager for Opera Columbus.

"There's a very large range," Rivera said. "It goes from very low to very high, and there's a lot of . . . coloratura -- which is basically moving the voice around a lot."

With more scene changes in Cinderella than in some other operas, Lohr ensures that the production is run efficiently.

"We put a show together in a fairly short amount of time," he said last week. "From the time the artists arrive -- most of our principal artists are from out of town -- to opening night is just about three weeks."

The scenery, rented from Kentucky Opera, has an art-nouveau appearance, Lohr said.

"The fairy tale of Cinderella is universal enough and timeless enough," he said, "that it really could take place in any time period."

"It's a really great opera for people to come to who've never experienced opera before," Rivera said, "because they already know the story."

Although the opera bears slight variations from the animated Disney version of the tale, she

said, people will understand the staging.

"Everything is translated immediately when we sing it," she said. "The point of the story is transformation. . . . That's the thing people love about Cinderella, and, obviously, that's very intact in the opera."